Brick Patio Makeover

I stood on our front porch this morning and watched our oldest daughter drive away to her last day of high school 😯 .  As she disappeared past the trees, I glanced over to our garden and noticed that the first peony has bloomed.  Talk about perfect timing.  I think it’s a sure sign that she is ready to bloom!

With that being said, we have been preparing for her graduation party that will take place at our home this month.  You may be surprised to know that we don’t entertain often.  I outgrew those days, and we are a pretty quite bunch.  However, this party is pretty large and we have many relatives coming in from out of state and even a few flying in.  I am planning on the party to take place mainly in our kitchen, and off on the large deck outside our kitchen’s French doors.  We’ve just had our very old deck re-done with Trex decking, so I will be posting about that soon, and I will be sharing all of my decorating for the party as well (I have some really fun things planned!).  Until then, I thought I would show you what I fixed up last weekend…our “Brick Patio Makeover”.  Boy, was it hot and humid.  I think it was close to 100 degrees!

With the heat I forgot to take before photos, but I have some in my stash from years ago when we first moved in.  Here’s the brick patio right after we moved in.   It had good bones, but definitely needed some work.

Here it is today…

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I know it’s not drop dead the most gorgeous patio you’ve ever seen, but it does feel pretty to me.  I love brick!  Also, our grass is just beginning to come in from all of the tree work we did last Fall.  Remember that?  Check it out here —-> TREE THINNING PROJECT.

The first thing I had to do last weekend was clean up that brick.  It was filled with weeds, dead leaves, and this is where all of the construction took place for the new deck.  There were nails, saw dust, garbage, etc. all over the place.  It was a disaster.  I started in the corner and worked my way out and got rid of all of it with a broom, and my gardening gloved hands pulled out the weeds.  I decided I really liked the moss that grew between the bricks, so I kept some of it.  After I was finish, I sprayed the entire patio with non-toxic weed killer to help prevent the weeds from coming back.

Check out our new beautiful Christmas tree we had put in…she’s a stunner.  You can also see the rows of hay over our grass seed behind her.  Come on grass…GROW for Julie!

If you look closely the extra brick that was in the before photos is now placed as a border for our mulch & landscaping.  We love our brick around here.  Here’s more about our BRICKS.

After the brick was all “clean”, or at least good enough for me, I couldn’t wait to start decorating.  Rick and I decided to bring our big teak wood table down from the deck and keep it down here for the party.  It only seats 6, and we have a lounge area planned for on top of the deck, and a few long tables for guests, so we needed to move this beast.  My back is pretty sore from lifting it, but we managed.  We are thinking we may keep it down here because it’s just too big, and weathered.  I want to invest in a much smaller table for our deck.  Something like this: THE TABLE I REALLY WANT 🙂

So, after we nearly killed ourselves getting the table down there, I bee-lined over to get the blue and white striped umbrella I purchased last year.  Here’s one that is very similar that I love—-> UMBRELLA.

Luckily, my husband needed to stop at the hardware store, so I asked him to pick up 2 flower pots that were pre-filled.  This isn’t something I would normally do, but I was getting so hot I just wanted something with color.  He really did good and found these for $10 each.  I then added some dollar store red & white checkered placemats, and my blue & white striped pillows, and I was finished.

Here’s the first peony I mentioned.  Have a safe & happy weekend! 😎